Xiaoshan, China: from a leading county economy to an international urban district

HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — On November 18, 2017, a special “family gathering” was held in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou City, one of the most developed urban districts in eastern China. 800 Xiaoshan people, who are leading figures in various sectors across the country and the world, returned home for the reunion under the call of Xiaoshan District government for the first time.

After nearly 40 years of development, Xiaoshan, famed as a city of entrepreneurs and reformers, has transformed into a typical international urban district nowadays from a leading county economy in China with a strong performance of township economy.

Xiaoshan is located on the south bank of China’s Qiantang River. This modern district is home to the main venue of the G20 Hangzhou Summit. It is famous for its economic development and has repeatedly won the first place with the best destination for investment in mainland China. Since the reform and opening up in China, people in Xiaoshan have created a miracle in the flourish of China’s private economy.

Lu Guanqiu, who just passed away, was from Xiaoshan. He is regarded as the “godfather” of Chinese private-owned enterprises. In the late 1970s, he founded Wanxiang Group and developed into the first OEM in China that supplied auto parts and components to General Motors. Its U.S. subsidiary has opened dozens of businesses in 26 U.S. states and has created over 8,000 jobs in the United States. The State of Illinois named August 12 every year as “Wanxiang Day” in recognition of the Chinese company’s contribution to the state.

Since its establishment in 1986 as a chemical company, Chuanhua Group has started to develop into a well-known and diversified modern private enterprise.

In recent years, Xiaoshan, China’s “economic heavyweight,” is shouldering the mission of “propelling an all-round economic and social transition through city transformation.”

The local government realizes that innovation is the number one driver for development.

Hangzhou Bay Information Port, located in Xiaoshan Economic and Technological Development Zone, is an important “incubation” platform for the Internet industry in Xiaoshan. Here have gathered more than 30 well-known Internet companies in China and it has become an important driving force for Xiaoshan to make its leap forward from a manufacturing area to an information economy area.

At present, the new industrial form of Xiaoshan, with intelligent manufacturing as the core, is taking shape. China’s first industrial big data alliance and first industrial big data laboratory were established in Xiaoshan. Internet giants like Alibaba and Netease, as well as leading AI companies all chose to settle down there.

The main venue of the G20 Hangzhou Summit is Hangzhou International Expo Center in Xiaoshan. The block where it is located — Olympic Sports Expo City will also host the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

According to statistics, from September 25, 2016 when the center was opened to the present, it has hosted totally over 1,800 conferences and 37 exhibitions with a total exhibition area of more than 3.5 million square meters. Its G20 Summit Experience Hall has received one million visits.

Winning recognition from international conference organizers, the Hangzhou International Expo Center in 2017 successfully joined the ICCA (International Congress & Convention Association), and became the sole member in China of the UIA (Union of International Associations). In the future, there will be more international fairs, conferences and cultural events.

It is understood that Xiaoshan will be built into China’s most dynamic exhibition city and the world’s leading destination for convention and exhibition. It is estimated that by 2019, total exhibition revenue will reach over 15 billion yuan (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) and there will be more than 1,000 international conferences to be held. It can be predicted that Xiaoshan will thus develop a new industry — high-end exhibition.

After the G20 Hangzhou Summit, Xiaoshan has become an important urban district linking Hangzhou with the world. In the future, the district will vigorously develop convention and exhibition industry, and all efforts will be made to build it into an international city of China based on the concept of “Exhibition +”.